Brooklyn Today for December 11

Brooklyn Today for December 11

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Good morning. Today is the 345th day of the year. On this day in 1886, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the start of the tobogganing season at Washington Park. Tobogganing was a sport in which people used a special type of wooden sled to slide down snow-covered hills in the winter. The Eagle said that it was an activity that “both the old and the young can enjoy, and even the fairer sex can participate in regularly.” The slides themselves, which were covered with ice, were constructed by tobogganing clubs. As the slide area at Washington Park was illuminated with electric lights, which were rare in those days, the tobagganing went on into the night. The sport continued to be popular until the 1930s, when it was eclipsed by skiing.

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